Chapter Text
Bonus: Part 3
Harry sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. He was doubtful they would actually get answers to their questions.
The scene changed.
Harry was running up the stairwell towards Gryffindor Tower, looking nervous the entire way up there, his eyes wearily locking on the portrait of the Fat Lady once it was in his line of sight.
“Aww,” sighed Ernie Macmillan as he sagged down in disappointment. “I wanted to see what would happen at Hagrid’s with that Felix Felicis affecting Harry.”
Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott and a few other students around nodded at his words. Even Professor Flitwick looked like he would have very much appreciated discovering a bit more from that last bit.
“Well,” said Ron as he leaned slightly back in his seat, “at least you no longer look like you’re about to jump off the Astronomy tower with a smile on your face out of sheer lack of self-preservation, I suppose, eh, Harry?”
Yeah, that was for sure. Harry kind of wished they would have seen more of what had gone on with the Felix Felicis in his system too, but he was actually grateful to see that in this new scene his expression was much more recognisable on his face than the one he’d had under the potion’s influence.
“Quid agis?” he said hesitantly, twitching in front of the Fat Lady.
She looked at him with an unreadable expression on her face as she slid open. “You’ll see.”
Harry didn’t seem to be comforted by her response.
“Er… is it just me, or does this not bode well?” commented a Hufflepuff boy.
“No, I feel the same way,” said another one blankly. “I’m just too used to things going wrong by this point, I’m just waiting to see how wrong it gets before saying anything, you know?”
The boy nodded. “Oh, yeah, good point, mate.”
Harry tried to tune them out, feeling the trepidation building in him. He was pretty sure this wouldn’t show some kind of death or anything like it because, well, he was walking to Gryffindor Tower, reluctant and hesitant but not sad or sorrowful from what he could tell. This looked like normal nerves and anxiety more than anything else.
He hoped it wasn’t because Ron and Hermione had some kind of vicious argument before and he was afraid of dealing with it. Or maybe he had an argument with one of them and he didn’t want to see them or deal with the fallout quite yet? Although… why would the Fat Lady know what was going on?
“I’m sure it won’t be too bad,” said Hermione lightly, her eyebrows creased together. “Whatever it is…”
Lavender snorted. “With your luck so far? I’d say this might as well turn out to be the apocalypse.”
“Or Crookshanks decided to eat Pigwidgeon, too,” suggested Megan Jones.
“Not helping,” said Hermione stiffly.
Harry’s eyes widened when the din from inside the common room could suddenly be heard, the voices becoming even louder once they noticed Harry standing outside. He didn’t fight it when people reached out and pulled him in through the hole.
Madam Bones looked genuinely surprised. “Oh, well… I suppose something good must have happened, then.”
Harry heaved a sigh of relief and smiled at the scene. Whatever it was the Gryffindors were celebrating in this future, it couldn’t possibly be too bad. True, he didn’t always find their celebrations relatable, comforting or fun for varying reasons, but them being this cheerful was bound to at least be tolerable if not downright exciting.
“What d’you reckon happened?” said Ron curiously, leaning forward to observe the hovering scene more attentively. “Must have been something amazing for everyone to be in the common room at once, eh? Think Snape finally got kicked out for something?”
While the thought did make Harry’s smile widened a tad, he shook his head. “We always hope for it and that never ends up happening. It’s probably something else.”
“I can still keep on dreaming, it’s not too late yet, mate,” said Ron determinedly.
Hermione rolled her eyes at the two of them with a fond and exasperated look on her face, as she seemed to agree with Harry while also attempting to figure out what was happening in this moment in time they were watching.
“Maybe You-Know-Who’s been defeated!” a first-year piped up.
“Or the escaped Death Eaters were caught and imprisoned again!” suggested Sue Li excitedly.
A Slytherin sent Umbridge a look and said, “D’you reckon we heard news that she died in Azkaban, maybe?”
“We don’t actually know she’s in Azkaban in this future,” noted a Ravenclaw girl.
“Well, here’s to hoping,” sighed the Slytherin.
Ron pushed forward, beaming at Harry and brandishing the Quidditch Cup proudly, people around him admiring the sight of it and whooping excitedly.
“We won!” exclaimed Ron brightly. “We won! Four hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty! We won!”
There were groans from the other three tables and some of the teachers who were disappointed to see that Gryffindor would win the Quidditch Cup in this future. It wasn’t a guarantee in their current timeline, but the knowledge that they had a rather good shot at it made Harry feel like he could float happily.
Winning the Quidditch Cup? With him as the captain? That was incredible! Wood would have squeezed the air out of his lungs had he been around to see this, Harry was certain.
Around him, the Gryffindors burst into cheers, already celebrating the event despite it not having happened yet. He couldn’t blame them, he felt like jumping up and down and cheering, as well. This was so far from being a bad moment. Harry must have only looked so worried because he wasn’t sure who’d won the game—
“Wait,” he said, suddenly frowning. “Wait, hold up, why wasn’t I there?”
“We won! Not as good as having Snape fired, but we wo—wait, what?” said Ron, blinking in confusion. “Oh, hey, you’re right. Why weren’t you at the game? You’re the captain, aren’t you? What in the world were you doing while we were playing?”
“You don’t look hurt,” noted Katie as she squinted at the image. “Although, well, I suppose Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t have let you leave the infirmary without first making sure you are perfectly fine. So maybe you were hurt and couldn’t get healed in time for the game?”
The twins grimaced in sympathy, muttering something about how it was such a shame he had to miss their victory, no matter what the reason was. Beside them, Lee Jordan nodded gloomily, although he still looked like he was happy to see their team would win.
“There must be a good explanation, either way,” said Ginny. “You would never intentionally sit out a Quidditch game, after all.”
Harry bit the inside of his cheek. “You don’t think I was banned from playing again, do you?”
“Without Umbridge around to forbid you for silly reasons?” said Dean. “Doubtful. You’d have to do something really terrible to be exempt from playing Quidditch again, wouldn’t you? And I don’t think you’d risk losing the Quidditch Captaincy, so you’d probably be watching your step, wouldn’t you?”
While Harry could see where Dean was coming from, he also had to think back to everything else that had happened to him over the years. He usually didn’t have to look for trouble for it to find him, so maybe he would be careful in the future, just… not enough to avoid some kind of disaster that would make the teachers ban him from playing?
He hated the mere idea of anything like it happening again, honestly.
“Urgh, who cares if you were there or not?” groaned Zacharias Smith. “You still won the bloody Cup!”
“I imagine winning the Cup might feel wonderful, but not quite as enjoyable as it could have been had it been won with Mr. Potter actually being present at the game,” said Professor Sprout. “I do hope nothing bad happened to prevent you from playing.”
Harry nodded absently, his mind racing with different reasons that could possibly explain his absence from the game when he was supposed to be the captain of the team. It must have been big enough to pull him away from something that was this important to him, right? But what?
Looking around at the enthusiastic Gryffindors, Harry grinned, then locked his eyes on Ginny, who was running towards him determinedly, weaving between the other people in the room. Once she was in front of him, she threw her arms around him, beaming happily, with her hair tousled, clothes slightly ruffled and her eyes blazing, locked on his.
Harry smiled at her, then bent down slightly to kiss her.
The room around them fell silent as people stared.
Harry’s jaw dropped, his face feeling remarkably hot as he gaped up at the future memory, his mind screeching to a halt and refusing to process what he was seeing because it made no sense.
He was confused and shocked and utterly mortified. It didn’t feel fair that there hasn’t been a single memory of him and Cho so far, yet now they were watching the future and this had to be shown? Honestly, at this point he would’ve taken the awkward memories of his crush on Cho over whatever this was.
There was no way for his mind to process it. Was he supposed to go like: “Oh, yeah, kissing Ginny sounds pretty cool, let’s do that!”? Because he didn’t feel like this was amazing or predictable. He had no idea how to swallow this. He’s been so focused on Cho since last year, he hasn’t really been paying attention to anyone else, but he knew that Ginny was dating Michael Corner and that, according to Hermione, she’d moved on from her own crush on Harry.
So what in the world was that?
“Yes,” said Lavender, a smile in her voice, “this is certainly the apocalypse.”
“HARRY!”
He flinched at Ron’s voice screeching in his ear. Oh, right, Ginny was also Ron’s little sister. She was his best mate’s little sister. What in the world was going through his head in the future that he just… kissed her like that in front of every single one of the Gryffindors!
Snapped out of his slight daze, Harry realised the entire Hall was buzzing from people’s chatter. Some looked stunned, others looked amused as they giggled or snickered at the scene, sending Harry and Ginny teasing looks that made Harry feel like he was genuinely on fire as he tried to melt into his own shadow and just cease to exist.
Absently, he registered the fact that Malfoy had a mocking grin on his face and that he was sending Harry a smug look before turning to tell his fellow Slytherins something that made them all burst into laughter. He figured it wasn’t anything friendly about Ginny and him if it made Malfoy look like that.
“Whoa, she actually did it,” he could hear one of the twins say.
“Respect, Ginny,” the other one said, “we never thought you’d make it.”
“We were clearly mistaken.”
“Shut up!” she snapped at them, and when Harry briefly glanced in her direction he found her face burning like his was, her eyes darting around as she seemed to flounder around for something safe to focus on right now.
“Harry!” said Ron again, this time voice slightly less shrill than before.
On Harry’s other side, Dean, Seamus and Neville were badly suppressing their chortles.
“Harry—you—Ginny—what?” demanded Ron.
Finally daring to glimpse at his friend, Harry took in Ron’s befuddled expression and the frantic way his eyes kept on darting between him, Ginny and the incriminating scene above them. He looked upset and shocked, but Harry was glad to note that there wasn’t much anger visible on his face, mostly confusion.
“I don’t know,” he said defensively. “It’s the future, remember? None of this has happened yet! I don’t know what’s happening or why. Besides, she’s dating Macheal Corner! Hermione said she was over me.”
Hermione blinked in alarm when Ron’s head snapped in her direction. She glanced between the two of them hurriedly, then sent a look towards Ginny, who stared at Ron and Harry like she wasn’t really seeing them. Behind her, Harry could see Michael Corner gawping at the scene, a hurt look on his face as his friends whispered to him.
Oh, God…
“I mean, t-that’s not really… that’s not the point here,” said Hermione uncomfortably.
“You did say that earlier this year, though,” said Ron accusingly.
“And I was telling the truth!” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you miss the fact that it wasn’t Ginny who kissed Harry, but rather the other way around? It was Harry’s choice, so don’t go pinning this on me!”
Harry tensed when Ron turned back to look at him.
“I don’t know!” he said before Ron could open his mouth again. “Honestly, Ron, I’ve never even thought of it before, all right? Can we… can we just move on already?”
“Yes please,” said Ginny.
“No, wait,” objected Michael. “Ginny, you—”
“Harry just said it’s happening in the future!” she snapped. “We don’t know what leads to it or why it happens. We don’t even know when it happens, Michael. Just drop it. There’s nothing to discuss!”
Harry couldn’t blame the bloke for snapping his head back around to turn to his friends who were much less intimidating than Ginny was. He kind of felt like doing the same, only in his case his friends were the people laughing around him, the girl sitting tight-lipped across from him and the guy who was sitting beside him with a troubled look on his face.
Ginny’s eyes caught Harry’s for the briefest moment. He had no idea how to interpret the expression on her face, though. She looked like she herself had no idea how to feel anymore, which he could certainly relate to.
Alicia Spinnet eyed the twins warily. “How come you two don’t mind it?”
“Better Harry than Corner,” said Fred nonchalantly.
Harry rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”
“This is like first year all over again,” moaned Ginny in embarrassment.
Parvati’s eyes lit up. “You mean with that Valentine’s Day poem?”
Ginny looked past Hermione and narrowed her eyes at Lavender and Parvati, both of whom were smiling mirthfully, their lips quivering. At least they were doing a better job at keeping their laughter under wraps than the three boys to Harry’s left.
Mortified, Harry loudly said, “Can we please just move on?”
Next to him, Ron shifted uneasily. “But I don’t get it. Your kiss with Cho wasn’t here. How come this is?”
“I don’t know,” he repeated exasperatedly.
“So you don’t like her now?” Ron made sure.
Harry wasn’t so certain anymore. He was pretty sure the answer was that no, he didn’t, but at the moment he wasn’t sure what to think anymore about any of this. How was he supposed to process this? It looked like he would like Ginny. In the future. Probably next year. But did that mean he already liked her? Would it happen later on? Was it even going to happen now that he saw this moment in this possible future?
His head was hurting, and for once it wasn’t because of his scar.
“I… don’t think so,” he offered lamely, blatantly ignoring Ginny’s brown eyes watching him from across the table.
Ron contemplated this for a long moment, then said, “Well… you will be better than all those other gits, though.”
“Ron!” scolded Ginny angrily.
“Oh, like you don’t agree with me,” he shot back.
From another table someone called, “We’ll be invited to the wedding, right, Potter?”
Boisterous laugher followed that inquiry. He was pretty sure he could hear Fred and George joining the fray, which was not helping, although he was mostly just glad they weren’t also looking at him the way Ron had, like Harry just dropped a bucket of icy water over his head.
Harry dropped his head to the table with a smack, embarrassment and a tad bit of anger rising in him as he listened to all of the voices around the Great Hall who were now discussing his love life like he wasn’t literally sitting right there. It didn’t help that Neville patted his back comfortingly while still chuckling at his predicament.
The silence broke when a few people wolf-whistled or started giggling.
Harry looked over Ginny’s head at everyone, searching the room. He lingered for a moment on Hermione’s beaming face but only stopped when he found Ron staring at him openly, his mouth hanging open with a bemused look on his face.
Several tense moments passed, then Ron jerked his head to show he was okay with it and Harry’s body relaxed as he smiled back at Ginny.
Harry’s eye twitched a little. He couldn’t help but feel it was unfair that in this future Ron’s reaction was much milder than it was over here just now. Why couldn’t Ron be as calm now? How come a year or so could make such a difference? Or maybe it depended on the circumstances as well… they did just win the Quidditch Cup in the scene, so maybe Ron was in a better mood.
Either way, it wasn’t fair.
“Aww, it’s like you asked for permission,” cooed Mandy Brocklehurst. “That’s adorable!”
“Er, he asked for permission after kissing his best friend’s sister,” noted Wayne Hopkins slowly, like he thought she was daft. “It’s more like… like he asked for forgiveness rather than permission.”
“Ron doesn’t need to give his permission,” commented Ginny irritably. “It’s none of his business.”
Hermione looked at her pitifully. “They’re best friends. It is crossing a certain boundary.”
Harry and Ron remained quiet, shifting uncomfortably next to each other without saying a word or even looking in each other’s direction. Although the fact that Ron wasn’t walking to pick a different seat or moving away so their sides wouldn’t brush against each other let Harry’s brain calm a little, knowing it meant that this wasn’t going to ruin everything.
“What boundary?” demanded Ginny. “It’s like saying I’d have the right to protest if you and Ron got together or something! It’s ridiculous!”
“Ginny!” shrieked Ron.
Spluttering, Hermione said in a high-pitched tone, “That’s different!”
“It is different,” agreed George.
“Why?”
Fred shrugged. “Just is. You’re our little sister. We’re looking out for you.”
“But you two don’t even seem to have a problem with any of this!” she protested.
“Yes, well,” said Fred, “we figured we wouldn’t like any bloke you choose, no matter who they are, but we already like Harry. So might as well approve of the one person we already accepted into the family.”
George nodded.
“Good point,” Ron muttered next to Harry.
Ginny let out a small, annoyed noise, then threw her arms in the air and shook her head, her hair whipping behind her like fire.
“Fine, whatever,” she said. “None of it matters anyway because I’m already dating someone and I don’t care if you don’t like him. This is none of your business who I go out with, so stay out of it, all of you.”
Once she was focused back on the future memories, Ron tipped his head closer to Harry’s and whispered, “But just so you know, I’d be okay with it. If—er—if something like this were to happen.”
Harry’s shoulders hunched a little, his eyes darting toward Ginny for a moment before he determinedly looked away.
“Right, okay, thanks,” he muttered, ignoring Hermione’s little amused smile.